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Aid agency reviews Syria refugee projects

Peter LloydUpdated
Mon 21 Oct 2013, 7:14 PM AEDT

Since the conflict in Syria began two years ago, an estimated one million Syria refugees have flooded into neighbouring Jordan. The executive director of Medecins Sans Frontieres Australia, Paul McPhun, was in Jordan last week. He was reviewing medical and humanitarian projects for Syrian refugees.

Transcript

DAVID MARK: Since the conflict in Syria began two years ago, an estimated one million Syria refugees have flooded into neighbouring Jordan.

The executive director of Mecins Sans Fronties Australia, Paul McPhun, was in Jordan last week.

He was reviewing medical and humanitarian projects for Syrian refugees, including a paediatric hospital in one refugee camp and a new mother and child health project in another part of the country.

Peter Lloyd spoke to him on the phone from Amman in Jordan.

PAUL MCPHUN: The conditions are far from perfect. It's not a happy place.

PETER LLOYD: Is the most acute medical issue more psychological than physical?

PAUL MCPHUN: Yeah. I mean, you've definitely put your finger on the pulse. There are a massive part of the population have witnessed very traumatic events or been through traumatic incidents themselves, lost family members, etc, etc. So the demand on mental health services is pretty high, there's absolutely no doubt about that.

The impact on everybody is absolutely profound. What I would probably go on to talk about is the majority of Syrian refugees, they're not residing in this camp or any of the other smaller camps. Of the total refugees who have crossed the border, which is in the region of 500,000, it's estimated that between 70 and 80 per cent are not actually in the camps at all.

PETER LLOYD: They're just existing in the Jordanian territory?

PAUL MCPHUN: Yeah. So this is really, for us, the most alarming situation right now is we estimate something in the region of 375,000 refugees, but there's a large percentage that are also unregistered, so numbers remain very unclear.

PETER LLOYD: What is the law and order situation in this situation that you're in, because this camp has effectively become Jordan's fourth largest city by population, if it's at about 144,000 people?

PAUL MCPHUN: Security is certainly an issue. There have been flare ups and disagreements. Populations come from different regions. They already have their own ethnic tensions, etc, etc. So maintaining camp security's quite a large responsibility. But in general that has been managed and continues to be managed. Of course, if the situation gets much worse, those tensions will only rise.

PETER LLOYD: How do you keep the war itself out of the camp though? How do you keep the Free Syrian Army, for example, from the Bashar al-Assad forces, from disputing each other within that environment?

PAUL MCPHUN: So far I don't think there's been many signs of that really happening, at least not on a scale that's impacting, overwhelming the camp setting or the security of the camp setting.

PETER LLOYD: Is it true that Palestinians, from Syria I should say, are excluded from these camps and that they are unwelcome in Jordan?

PAUL MCPHUN: We have no evidence of that.

PETER LLOYD: So are you able to say whether or not Palestinians are part of the camp that you're working in?

PAUL MCPHUN: Well we've certainly received Palestinian patients. I can say that here in Amman, where we run a surgical rehabilitation hospital, we've also received Palestinian patients.

PETER LLOYD: The Hashemite dynasty relies on its non-Palestinian tribal support base for power, and there's all these Palestinians suddenly turning up in Jordan. Is that why it's a sensitive issue?

PAUL MCPHUN: I really can't comment on that. We're not confronted with challenges in people accessing health services based on their ethnicity at all. If I had to say what the issues were right now, that would not be the first one on my list.

For me the primary issue is the war's not over in Syria. What's going to happen next? Second issue is the largest needs now facing refugees in Syria is facing refugees that are not in camp settings.

PETER LLOYD: From where you're sitting, are you happy with how the Australian Government has positioned itself in the Security Council to deal with this issue? Are you seeing the Government of this country working hard enough to solve the problem?

PAUL MCPHUN: We're absolutely not happy that there is no international agreement yet to allow unhindered access for humanitarian assistance in Syria, and that's without question. I think Australia's been doing its part to try and push that agenda, and I think that's absolutely the right agenda, but it's clearly an agenda that continues to fail.

PETER LLOYD: Has in some sense the world become used to the awfulness of this civil war? And lately been too obsessed with the issue of chemical weapons and resolving this international crisis around that issue?

PAUL MCPHUN: It's a very good point you make, and the attention that's been drawn on chemical weapons, and it's not to, of course, underplay how horrific that was and how important it is to have the resolution that was passed and the actions that have been taken, but we have witnessed mass casualties in Syria on a weekly basis. And we respond to that with the surgical hospitals that we have in opposition held areas in the north of Syria.

So it's absolutely not enough to say that priority is chemical weapons when on a daily basis the strategy of warfare continues to cause mass casualties amongst civilian population.